Armour reaction: British Army urgent operational requirements

Over the past two years the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has come under considerable pressure to provide the British Army with vehicles that have an enhanced level of protection for deployment to Iraq and more recently Afghanistan.

Not only have new vehicles been procured, such as the Mastiff, Ridgback and Vector, but also many existing vehicles have been rapidly upgraded to provide better protection. These initiatives have been funded by the UK Treasury to meet what are known as urgent operational requirements (UORs), which allow the MoD to have a much shorter acquisition process than normal in order to get equipment to the user as quickly as possible.

Existing armoured vehicles have had to be upgraded to allow operation in much higher ambient temperatures than envisaged when the vehicles were designed. In some cases, these armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) have had to be upgraded several times as the threat has changed or new requirements have emerged as a result of combat experience.

It should be noted that no AFV could provide the crew with a guaranteed 100 per cent survivability, so a balance has to be struck between providing as much protection as possible while still maintaining a vehicle's mobility so that it can carry out its assigned mission.

In an environment where the threat is constantly changing, a major effort is required to keep one step ahead of the opposing elements. The Warrior infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), for example, has had at least five survivability enhancements.

The rapid fielding of new and adapted AFVs to meet UORs, however, is not without risk. Often the vehicles have to be modified to suit British Army requirements and crews, therefore, have to be trained to operate and maintain them, while a robust integrated logistic support (ILS) chain must be put in place to support them in the field.

Meanwhile, such is the current worldwide demand for mine-resistant vehicles from the various national contingents serving in southwest Asia that there is often a significant time lapse between orders being placed and deliveries being fulfilled.

Image: Mastiff heavy-protected patrol vehicles are based on Force Protection's Cougar but have 50 modifications to meet British Army requirements (Jane's/Patrick Allen) 342 of 1,785 words